Shades of Gray
by Rapey Lemons
Summary: Blake, a full-fledged member of the White Fang, comes across the little heiress in a hotel. Blake x Weiss, may contain smut but also has an actual plot. Occurs before Beacon.


The test had been rigged.

Weiss still couldn't believe it. Her own family, her blood and flesh, had attempted to kill her off. The only other alternative would be that the White Fang had tried to kill her, but due to the tight protocols surrounding the extremely secretive testing process, she found that possibility unlikely.

Her heart was going at a full gallop as she took deep breaths and tried to calm herself down. Her legs were a little wobbly, the facade she had put up taking its toll. The man at the counter had stared at her for a little when she came in, her noble aura and regal beauty surpassing the drab grey sweatshirt and track pants she had hastily switched into. The barely-dried wound over her left eye probably didn't help her avoid standing out either.

The white-haired girl had nearly bolted out of the hotel when he had asked for her name. He needed a something to put in the registry if she wanted a room, he explained. Weiss had stood there in shock as her mind grasped for ideas. The receptionist, seeing her state of panic, had patiently waited for a response.

"W-We-Wynne," Weiss had stuttered out.

She eventually secured the room. Longer stays were discounted, so renting it for a month didn't take as large of a drain on her cash reserves as she feared it would. The hotel was nothing special, maybe even a little on the cheap side, but Weiss was just grateful that she had somewhere to hide and organize her thoughts for the time being.

With shaky hands Weiss pulled the little magnetic card out of her pocket. She was used to unlocking doors with a simple gesture on her tablet, so it took a few tries for her to slip the piece of plastic that was her room key into the lock.

After a few seconds, the light turned green and the lock let out a satisfied click. Weiss quickly pushed the door open, then barely managed to close it behind her before her legs gave out. She slumped to the ground, the long duffel bag she had held in her hand now thumping to the floor as she lay there gasping.

She sighed and rested her trembling body against the wall. It took her a few minutes before she had recovered enough to look around the room and observe her surroundings.

The room was plain. A double bed lay in the center of the cramped space, a tiny hallway led off to the side to the bathroom, and a display sat against the wall in front of the bed. There was a small closet to the side of the room and a nightstand with a telephone on top of it, a generic welcoming card propped up against it.

Weiss slid the closet open and neatly placed the duffel bag inside. She picked up a small paper notice on one of the shelves and read it, sighing in relief upon seeing that there was a laundry service available for a small fee.

Attempting to regain her composure, Weiss sat down on the bed and began to go over what had happened the previous day.

* * *

><p>She remembered the cold nod from her stern father, the hesitant hug from her chilly mother.<p>

The training room was dark and empty, the only illumination from false windows that glowed with a white light. Schnee family insignias decorated the walls, the intricate snowflakes breaking the monotony of the black building.

Weiss had taken a deep breath and stilled her nerves. She remembered reminding herself that this was nothing, that she had practiced this hundreds of times, that she had defeated easily defeated the Knight with every try.

But her little pep talk had made herself too overconfident, too assured in her own abilities. She hadn't even bothered to use her Dust. Instead, she had just relied on her physical abilities and aura as she danced around the Knight and attacked its joints to wear it down.

The punch had been unexpected, the metal-clad fist smashing into her before she could fully bring her guard up. Weiss had groaned to herself, realizing that the test would have to restart because she had taken a hit. Perfection was the goal, anything less was failure.

But the test hadn't stopped. Weiss had barely managed to stand up when the knight began running at her, swinging with speed and power she had never before encountered. She had been forced to use all of her Dust to convincingly beat it back. Red to deflect its blow, blue to freeze it, green to disarm it, yellow to send it flying, glyphs to bind it, and white to finish it.

She stood there, eyes closed, arms trembling, as the robot disintegrated behind her. She couldn't believe what she had seen.

Her father stared at the blood as she stormed out of the room. Her mother offered reluctant congratulations that Weiss ignored.

She remembered being rushed, her forced calm breaking down as she stuffed her clothing and supplies into a duffel bag. The gray sweatshirt and black track pants had been swapped on so people wouldn't recognize her distinctive outfit. She had memorized the locations of the alarms and other security measures in the past in order to hide whenever her father was in one of his rages, so she easily slipped past them and propelled herself over the walls with her glyphs.

She remembered pulling the hood of the sweatshirt over her head and running to the nearest train station. She had ignored the puzzles glances of pedestrians as she frantically shoved lien into the ticket machine.

She remembered pulling out her tablet and compulsively checking it for news or messages from her family. But no one had noticed her escape.

She had leaned back in the seat and stared blankly at the ceiling of the train cart for hours. She had tried to convince herself that it was just a misunderstanding, that this whole idea was foolish, that she should just get off the train and take another ride home.

But she hadn't been able to convince herself. In the past few weeks, the attitude of her relatives had been colder than usual. None of them offered her the respect that her position as the heiress should have received. In fact, they had treated her as if they weren't afraid of future repercussions, as if she were just a minor annoyance that would soon be stealthily erased and forgotten.

* * *

><p>A knock on the door startled Weiss from her reverie. She sat up, blinking away the tears as she slid off of the bed. Quickly wiping her face, she told herself that no one could possibly know where she was and that there was nothing to worry about.<p>

Weiss cautiously peeked through the peephole and saw a girl with black hair on the other side. Feeling slightly reassured that there was no immediate danger, she carefully opened the door.

"What do you want?"

* * *

><p>Blake stalked around her room, the bow on her head twitching as she tried to concentrate on the book in her hand.<p>

She had recently been assigned to this town with orders to stay alert and await further commands. As a relatively high-ranking member of the White Fang, she was privy to most things, but apparently this assignment was something huge, something game-changing, something so important that even she wasn't allowed to know about it in advance.

It probably had to do with her age. Despite only being sixteen, she was already high up in the hierarchy due to her involvement in the White Fang since her childhood. However, it seems that there were some things that not even years of membership could change.

Frustrated, Blake carefully set her book on the nightstand and straightened her clothing. She was wearing a long-sleeved black shirt with white dress pants, a far cry from her usual attire. She had to wear these clothes to maintain her false identity as young, serious businesswoman, but they were far more constrictive then what she normally wore and she was already beginning to grow sick of them.

Deciding to get a breath of relatively fresh air, she left her hotel room and locked it behind her before starting down the hallway. As she padded across the carpeted floor, she made sure that her bow was properly adjusted and completely hid her cat ears.

Blake's furry appendages involuntarily twitched as she neared the elevator. She turned around, glancing around the hallway as she attempted to pinpoint the source of the sound. Normally she wouldn't really care about humans, but because she was on a mission she had to be cautious and make sure that her location had not been compromised. A murder or a suicide could easily bring in the unwanted attention of the authorities and completely ruin her plans if they investigated the area.

So Blake slowly turned in a circle, eventually locating the soft sobs coming from a room further down the hallway. She knocked on the door a few times and waited.

Half a minute later, the door cracked open and a pair of light-blue eyes peered out.

"What do you want?" an unsteady voice demanded.

Blake's breath caught in her throat as she stared at the pale beauty, her cheeks a little pink from crying. The dried blood on the side of her face barely detracted from her appearance, the dark red a stark contrast against her white hair. As a rule, she didn't really like humans, but this pretty, tear-stained girl seemed so alone and vulnerable that she couldn't help but attempt to console her.

But she didn't let any sign of her infatuation show as she responded. "I was just wondering if you were okay. I heard someone crying when I walked by."

Weiss looked surprised and then a little embarrassed. "Sorry, I didn't think I was that loud."

"There wasn't anyone else around," Blake reassured her. "I think I was the only one who heard."

"Oh, okay then."

They stood awkwardly for a little while as they stared at each other. Weiss eventually looked away and began to close the door.

"Wait," Blake pleaded, stepping forward. "Are you sure you're okay? Do you need someone to talk with?"

Weiss scoffed. "If you think I'm going to hurt myself, well, then you're wrong," she stated even as she sniffled a bit. "But I guess we could talk if you wanted to."

Weiss had been caught off-guard, her icy exterior temporarily broken down after what had just happened. So she was grateful for the company of someone else, someone who didn't know who she was and someone she could talk to.

Weiss closed the door behind Blake before sitting down on the bed, prim and proper, her hands shaking a little as she kept them in her lap. Blake sat next to her and watched her delicate expression.

"So? What's wrong?"

"Well," Weiss began, looking down. "Let's say you were to receive some sort of… inheritance. And all of your family members wanted a bit of that money, of that fortune."

Blake nodded.

"And let's say that these family members treated you nicely. At first. And then you realized that they were just after your money, and that most of them didn't really like you.

"And then," Weiss mumbled, her voice choking up, "they tried to kill you. You don't know who it could have been. It could have been your parents, your cousins, any of your relatives. Hell, maybe it was even your own sister." Tears were streaming down her face by this point.

"I just don't know what to do," she sobbed. "I can't believe that my family members, no matter how they treated me, would try to kill me. I don't want to die, and I don't want to go back. I'm just so… lost."

Blake sighed, rubbing her head. She had never interacted much with humans before, and she didn't really know what to do. She had never been in this position before. All of her instincts were telling her to ditch the girl, to leave her to her sorrows, but she couldn't quell the growing empathy inside of her. And of course, she had to admit to herself that the pretty face did help.

"There, there," Blake consoled, rubbing Weiss' back. "I'm sure you'll—"

Weiss immediately hugged Blake's midsection and held on for dear life as she cried. Blake momentarily froze, assessing if she was a threat, then began to pat her head as she wondered what she was supposed to do. For the moment the girl seemed happy to just hold onto something, so Blake held still and let the tears soak her shirt.

Weiss didn't know why she was clutching a random stranger and spilling her heart out, but it seemed that her years of solitude were finally catching up to her. It had been a long time since someone had offered to listen to her problems, to console her when she needed help, so when Blake appeared in front of her all of her barriers broke down.

Weiss finally pulled back after a few minutes, a little flustered by her own outburst.

"Sorry, I don't know what got ahold of me there," Weiss apologized, dabbing at her cheeks. "That must have been uncomfortable."

"Not at all," Blake replied honestly. "Everyone needs a friend to get through tough times."

Weiss blinked, startled, then smiled. "Friends it is, then," she declared. She cleared her throat as she tugged at her sweatshirt. "I'll be here for the next few weeks, probably. Will you be staying around?"

Blake shrugged. "Probably," she said. "If you want to chat, I'm in room 312."

Weiss nodded gratefully. "Well, I need to take a shower and change out of these clothes."

"Then I'll be going now," Blake responded, standing up. "See you around."

"Thank you again," Weiss whispered, impulsively pulling her into a hug.

Blake gently hugged her back, wondering if she should say anything. But by the time she had come up with something suitable, she had already stepped outside of the room, the door clicking shut behind her.

* * *

><p>Weiss didn't know what was wrong with herself. Well, she could take a few obvious guesses, but her actions were still a little unexpected. She had let a <em>stranger<em> into her room and told her about her problems, and then she had hugged her. _Twice_. She didn't even know her name, and she realized that she couldn't tell the black-haired girl her real name.

Weiss sighed as she pulled off her sweatshirt. She had no idea how to go about fixing this whole mess, but maybe her new friend could help her. As she stepped into the shower, she realized that her hands weren't shaking anymore and that she was considerably calmer after the girl's visit. The fact that she had someone to share her troubles with, someone who might be able to understand her, was truly a gift from the heavens.

And she smiled to herself as she wondered when it would be appropriate to meet with her again.

* * *

><p><strong>Note:<strong>

**THANKS TO LazyKatze FOR HER AWESOME EDITING**

**So here's the monochrome fic, hope you guys like it. Please review and comment and message if you have any questions, I'll try to avoid spoilers though.**


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